With the continuous development of innovative drugs in China, it has become a trend for innovative drugs to go global. Entering October 2025, innovative drug BD transactions remain hot, with several pharmaceutical companies announcing heavyweight BD transactions on October 16th.
Among them, Hanson Pharmaceutical announced that on October 16th (after trading hours), the company's wholly-owned subsidiaries Shanghai Hanson Biopharmaceutical Technology Co., Ltd. and Changzhou Hengbang Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. (collectively referred to as "licensors") entered into a license agreement with F. Hoffmann La Roche Ltd (licensee) for HS-20110. According to the license agreement, the licensor will receive a down payment of $80 million and is eligible to receive up to $1.45 billion in milestone payments based on the development, registration approval, and commercialization progress of the product, as well as tiered royalties for potential future product sales.
According to the data, HS-20110 is a CDH17 targeted antibody drug conjugate (ADC) under development, currently undergoing global phase I clinical trials in China and the United States for the treatment of colorectal cancer (CRC) and other solid tumors. Roche's significant investment in this collaboration indicates its optimism about the enormous potential of HS-20110 as a potential innovative therapy.
On the evening of October 16th, Prudential announced that it has reached a cooperation agreement with KITE PHARMA, INC. (hereinafter referred to as "Kite") in the field of in situ editing therapy in vivo, and signed an authorization and cooperation agreement. The cooperation area is global. According to the agreement, Prudential is entitled to and has received a total down payment of $120 million. Upon triggering specific milestones, Prudential is also entitled to receive a total of up to $1.52 billion in cash payments for each milestone, as well as a sales share based on future product net sales.
According to the data, Prudential Biotech is an innovative biopharmaceutical enterprise engaged in the research and industrialization of cell and gene therapy drugs. It independently develops immune cell drugs for industrialization and internationalization, and currently authorizes or transfers technology to customers through a licensed business model. For the research and commercialization of the project, the company has established an independent and complete system for research and development, production, and supply. Prudential's financial report shows that in the first half of this year, the company achieved a revenue of 5.626 million yuan, and this cooperation is expected to bring considerable performance growth.
On October 16th, Nanjing Weili Zhibo also announced an exclusive global partnership with Dianthus Therapeutics to jointly promote the development of a novel anti BDCA2/TACI bispecific fusion protein LBL-047 (DNTH212). Weili Libo will grant Dianthus exclusive rights to research, develop, produce, and commercialize LBL-047 outside of Greater China, with a down payment of up to $38 million and recent milestone payments. The total amount of the transaction can reach up to 1 billion US dollars.
According to the data, LBL-047 is a preclinical pipeline of Weili Zhibo. As a long-acting bispecific fusion protein, its design selectively clears plasma cell like dendritic cells (pDCs) to reduce type I interferon (IFN-I) production, while inhibiting the BAFF/APRIL signaling pathway to block B cell activation, survival, and antibody production. By targeting two key driving factors in the pathogenesis of autoimmune diseases, this differentiation strategy is expected to cover multiple autoimmune indications and maximize its clinical value and commercial potential.
In addition, on October 8th, Nuocheng Jianhua announced a cooperation agreement with overseas biopharmaceutical company Zenas to license its small molecule drug Obutinib in the field of autoimmunity overseas, with a total agreement amount exceeding 2 billion US dollars.
From the overall perspective of the industry, the trend of innovative drugs going global has become clear, and the market expects more BD transactions to land by the end of the year. Institutional analysis points out that we are firmly optimistic about the market of innovative drugs and focus on investing in targets with strong BD certainty. Looking ahead to the future, the innovative drug sector is still mainly expected to be based on trading BD, and the re landing of BD trading is expected to be a key factor driving the sector's recovery. Data statistics show that the proportion of BD transactions in the fourth quarter of each year is about 40% of the whole year. In addition, there is still room for expectation in the market performance of large commodities. The recent adjustment of the sector provides a good layout window for investors who are optimistic about the long-term track of innovative drugs.